The Virtue of Remembering You’re Alive

Many people sleepwalk through life—chasing routine, numbing discomfort, and forgetting the miracle of existence. The virtue of remembering you’re alive is about presence. It’s about becoming fully aware of your breath, your moments, your connections. Those who live this way don’t wait for tragedy to make them grateful or loss to make them notice what they had. They awaken each day to the incredible fact: I am here. I exist. And this won’t last forever.

A True Story: Derek Amato and the Piano

In 2006, Derek Amato hit his head during a swimming pool accident. When he woke, he’d lost some memory and hearing—but had gained something extraordinary: the ability to play complex piano compositions he had never learned. He’d never been a musician. But after that day, music poured out of him. He described it as if remembering something buried. The experience shook him—and reminded him of how fragile, beautiful, and fleeting consciousness really is.

Three Quotes from Books About Being Alive

In The Power of Now (1997), Eckhart Tolle urged:

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

~ Eckhart Tolle

In Awareness (1990), Anthony de Mello wrote:

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you. And you are asleep.

~ Anthony de Mello

In Tuesdays with Morrie (1997), Mitch Albom quoted his teacher:

Learn how to die, and you learn how to live.

~ Morrie Schwartz (via Mitch Albom)

Five More Quotes About Remembering You’re Alive

In 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed:

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the past.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In 2005, Steve Jobs told Stanford graduates:

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

~ Steve Jobs

In 2020, author Brianna Wiest observed:

Your life is made of moments. If you’re not careful, you’ll miss all of them waiting for one big one.

~ Brianna Wiest

In 2011, poet Nayyirah Waheed wrote:

I don’t pay attention to the world ending. It has ended for me many times, and began again in the morning.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

In 1939, W.H. Auden offered:

Look if you like, but you will have to leap. The sense of being alive lies in the act, not the thought.

~ W.H. Auden

Life Lesson:

You’re not guaranteed tomorrow. The greatest mistake people make is acting like they are. Life is brief, strange, beautiful—and right now. Derek Amato’s life changed in one second. He woke up with new abilities, but more importantly, a new awareness: life is happening, whether or not we notice. Don’t wait for a shock to open your eyes. Breathe in. Look around. Feel the aliveness in your body. It won’t always be yours. So use it. Fully. While you still can.